Lawrence himself, I imagine,
would be the fittest man to employ; or your Mr. Ingham [Inman],
if he be here and a capable person: one or both of these might
superintend the Engraving of it here, and not part with the plate
till it were pronounced satisfactory. In short, I am willing to
do "anything in reason"! Only if a Portrait is to be, I confess
I should rather avoid going abroad under the hands of bunglers,
at least of bunglers sanctioned by myself. There is a Portrait
of me in some miserable farrago called _Spirit of the Age;_* a
farrago unknown to me, but a Portrait known, for poor Lawrence
brought it down to me with sorrow in his face; it professes to
be from his painting; is a "Lais _without_ the beauty" (as
Charles Lamb used to say); a flayed horse's head without the
spiritualism, good or bad,--and simply figures on my mind as a
detestability; which I had much rather never have seen. These
poor _Spirit of the Age_ people applied to me; I described
myself as "busy," &c.; shoved them off me; and this monster of
iniquity, resembling Nothing in the Earth or under it, is the
result.
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